About Disruptive Innovation in Health Care

Project 2017-08-24 23:16:11 UTC

We want to buy an Infrared Thermography Camera. Why? Our aim is to create a a solid research base to give clincians the confidence to make better decisions using infrared thermography. Unfortunately government funding for new ideas such as this is scarce and difficult to come by.

Please help us buy an Infrared Thermography Camera to build up a body of evidence to convince government funding agencies to fund larger and more robust trials into the use of this technology in health care.

Why do we need this camera?

Physiological processes in the body become active often prior to an injury becoming painful. These processes can cause changes in skin temperature over the affected structure.

Medical infrared thermography provides a non-invasive and non-radiating analysis tool for analysing physiological functions related to the control of skin-temperature. An injury is often related with variations in blood flow and these in turn can affect the skin temperature. Inflammation leads to rise in temperature, whereas degeneration, reduced muscular activity and poor blood flow may cause a decrease in temperature. In fact, a cold skin pattern around ankle sprains indicates a poor prognosis and a long recovery time.

This technology can fill a need for personalised medicine to better screen for, prevent and manage injury and disease on an individual basis.

Government research funding is finite and is aligned with government priorities. This makes it very difficult to explore new avenues of research without a significant body of evidence to support future investigations. Help me build up a body of evidence to convince government funding bodies to invest in more efficient management of illness or injury.

Who is behind the project?

I'm Steve Tumilty, a Registered Physiotherapy Specialist (Musculoskeletal) and one of the few clinician-scientists in Physiotherapy World-wide. I am an experienced researcher and enjoy pushing the boundaries of new knowledge in health care. I have contributed to over 70 article and conference presentations to the musculoskeltal injury knowledge base, and have won awards at many conferences.

Our planned studies (to start with):

I already have students ready to start researching. These are the initial studies we will look to complete with the camera:

Comments

The People Behind Disruptive Innovation in Health Care

Updates

Be in to win

Have you noticed the new reward? Any pledges over NZ$100 go in the draw to win an iPAd mini. It will only take less than 250 people to pledge NZ$100 or more to reach my target; pretty good odds of winning this iPAd mini I think.

Reduce your coffee intake for a couple of weeks, research says it will do you good, and donate to my project.

You know it makes sense.:)

Tell your friends too.

Comment on this update:

Turn this into an avalanche

Thanks everyone for the huge show of interest on social media around my project. Colleagues in New Zealand, Australia, USA, UK, Canada, Singapore, and Japan have kindly spread the word. For the competitive people out there, New Zealand, Japan and Canada have led the way with donations; I’ve even had a couple of $500 pledges from very generous people. That being said, every little counts, and another 1,169 pledges for NZ$20 will see me hit my target. Feel free to pledge more if you are able.

NZ$20 = USD 14.42

GBP 10.72

SGD 19.54

CAD 17.80

AUD 18.29

JPY 1,618.87

I know the academics among you will spend more than that on coffee each week J

A couple of willing pledgers have had difficulty actually registering their donation, and they have promised to send me a personal cheque instead. Honestly, I would prefer that all donations go through the PledgeMe website; please follow these instructions:

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the Physiotherapy profession could get behind this avenue of research funding and show that we can take responsibility for our own growth and development. Please don’t be hesitant, be part of the avalanche and start the ball rolling.

Comment on this update:

Clarification

Thank you to all the people that are retweeting my project, and to those of you who have asked teh question...

I am seeking funds for my own research programme and doing this as an individual. Donors/pledgers will be supporting me to conduct investigations into the use of infrared thermography for the management of any conditions allied health practitioners may deal with on a day to day basis.

Comment on this update:

Pledges

paul

2017-10-12 14:45:47 UTC

paul has pledged on 1 campaign

“good luck with the fund raising! ”

Zoe Rippon

2017-10-02 22:22:38 UTC

Zoe Rippon has pledged on 2 campaigns

“All the best with the project!”

Masashi

2017-10-02 13:46:46 UTC

Masashi has pledged on 1 campaign

“hope this would help your research.”

Hemakumar Devan

2017-09-28 04:18:56 UTC

Hemakumar Devan has pledged on 1 campaign

“Always a big fan of applications of health technologies to improve health outcomes. Wishing you best for your research initiative Steve.”

Brian Mulliga

2017-09-28 00:05:19 UTC

Brian Mulliga has pledged on 2 campaigns

“Good luck Brian Mulligan”

Takayuki Miyamori

2017-09-25 07:15:29 UTC

Takayuki Miyamori has pledged on 1 campaign

“Good luck for your research project maybe I can help to follow subjects of Japanese athletes.”

Rebekah Little

2017-09-22 09:45:38 UTC

Rebekah Little has pledged on 1 campaign

“If the evidence is there then there is no reason this shouldn't be implemented.”

Anonymous pledger

2017-09-20 00:34:26 UTC

This pledger has chosen to pledge anonymously

Augustine Joshua

2017-09-19 21:20:00 UTC

Augustine Joshua has pledged on 1 campaign

“All the best!”

Jane Scoular

2017-09-19 07:30:49 UTC

Jane Scoular has pledged on 2 campaigns

“Thanks Steve for your hard work and enthusiasm. You're totally right that as physios we need to be more proactive.”

Anonymous pledger

2017-09-15 00:51:49 UTC

This pledger has chosen to pledge anonymously

Anonymous pledger

2017-09-14 23:03:35 UTC

This pledger has chosen to pledge anonymously

Kesava

2017-09-14 08:17:52 UTC

Kesava has pledged on 1 campaign

“Truly inspiring of you to do this Steve. My best wishes for your future projects. ”